Baseball nerds, you won’t want to miss Jonathan Hock’s documentary “Fastball.” And those who don’t follow baseball, it’s clear/insightful enough that you may come to understand why the game is such an obsession for the rest of us.
“Fastball” is playing at Tribeca, but I’m sure it will get a lot of play on ESPN and elsewhere. Look out for it.
I would really like to understand baseball and learn to like it. Because I find the clothes and paraphernalia to be very pretty.
What do you mean, shallow?
#kthxby
I love the gear. I love the outfits. I love the pine-tar. I love the game.
My first memory – as a human being on this planet – is of being at a game at Fenway Park in Boston. I was being held by my mother or my father, and I remember how loud everything was.
It’s like being Catholic or something – I was born into it. Not just baseball, but Red Sox fandom. But really – just baseball, in general.
I said recently on Facebook that life doesn’t quite feel right during the months where there is no baseball on the television. Every April, once games start being broadcast, and you see them on televisions in the corner of bars or delis or whatever, I feel a little “Ahhhh, now everything’s okay” kind of thing happen.
It was great – yesterday I ran into a critic from Brazil – a guy I met at Ebertfest a couple of years ago. He had Tweeted to me a couple of days ago, “Hey I’m going to be at Tribeca – let’s hook up” – and then yesterday I just ran into him by coincidence. So it was great to stop and say Hi. We talked about everything we had seen. He said he was going to a screening of EL CINCO based purely on my rave review of it – so that made me feel good! I love spreading the word about good films. I mentioned how much I loved FASTBALL and he said it was fascinating to him – because he’s not a sports guy (“although I follow soccer. Of course I follow soccer. I’m from Brazil. It’s in our constitution that we must be soccer fans.”) – but it’s not an obsession to him. So baseball and its true obsessiveness was a new world to him, and he thought it was fascinating and hilarious to see how seriously it was taken. Not in a condescending way (I can’t stand that – when non-sports fans are like, “God, you guys, it’s just a game.” Shut up.) – but in a “Wow, I had NO IDEA” kind of way. He was saying, “I mean, just the fact that the fastball is such a huge deal … and how seriously everyone took it … I just had no idea how big a deal it was …” (We had both been talking about documentaries, and how the really good ones introduce you to a brand new world, or situation, or sub-culture – that you had never really considered before. The good documentaries are not just for insiders. So it was cool to hear that FASTBALL worked equally as well on someone who was not at all a baseball fan.)
For a long time, I hated soccer fans. Because I grew up in a place where it was unavoidable: my father screaming while I was trying to sleep, people screaming in the streets, sometimes very aggressively. Soccer was everywhere, and it made people rude and stupid.
In Montreal, I discovered another way to love sports. Last week a man complimented me with a laugh in the street because I was “wearing the right colours”. With my dark blue coat and my red bag, I was in tune with the Canadians fans gathering in every bar of the city to watch hockey. Maybe I’m just old-fashioned and it’s all about being polite. But I think there’s something else. I’ve never been a big fan of groups and crowds, but here, everyone is so calm and, I don’t know, joyous? I only see the fun. It almost makes me want to join.
But I fear I’ll never understand hockey or baseball rules. I read your review, and it’s very mysterious to me. :) But I love people talking about something they love. I love the passion.
// Last week a man complimented me with a laugh in the street because I was “wearing the right colours”. With my dark blue coat and my red bag, I was in tune with the Canadians fans gathering in every bar of the city to watch hockey. //
That random comment from that man is strangely adorable.
I definitely love being around people who are passionate – even if I don’t “get it.” But of course it’s funner when you “get it”!!
Your Ebert review is quoted in the trailer I just saw on-line for this film. Maybe it’s been out forever, but as a regular reader, I thought that was cool.
Really? Thanks for letting me know!
That movie satisfied my baseball-nerd self so much.
Oh my gosh, me and Fox Sports. That is hilarious.